More Milestones

We were greeted this morning with a sweet little voice right by our bed! Annalee is still sleeping in her crib (we didn't want too many changes all at once with the move and the new baby soon), but today she decided that she would climb out of it! She actually did this twice yesterday before nap time and it didn't take her long to become a pro. Needless to say, we converted her crib into a toddler bed today. She was pretty proud of her new found freedom. I knew tonight would be interesting getting her to bed, but what happened was downright hilarious. After we did our night-time routine, we had a little talk about staying in the bed and calling for us when she awoke in the morning. (I can at least try, right?) I left her room and a few minutes later I heard her calling for me. I was pretty proud that our little talk had worked. I went back in, we sang some more and then it was night-night time again. It was quiet for almost 30 minutes, so I was pretty sure she had gone to sleep without any problems. Then I started hearing a thumping sound and after that something that sounded like one of her toys. When I went to check on her, she had gotten into her closet and put on a pair of shoes, turned on one of her lamps, and was just cooking away at her kitchen set!! As soon as I opened the door and she saw me she busted out in tears! Amazing. Let's just hope we get this down before Grace gets her in a couple of weeks!

Our other milestone is potty training. I bought her a potty a few months ago just so we would have it and she could get used to the idea of it. I had absolutely no intention of potty training her (I still don't!) I've heard so many people tell me that it's best to follow their lead and not force anything. Plus, if there are major life changes going on in addition, it can make it much harder. I was just going to wait it out as long as she needed to. Is that terrible that I would rather change diapers than deal with potty training at this point?! Anyway, I say all of that to say that she is pretty much potty training herself without me! She will come to me several times a day and ask to go to the potty. She'll take her pants and diaper off and start to go without any assistance. This morning she woke up with a dry diaper and peed in the potty first thing after she woke up. What? I guess we'll be car shopping by next week and picking out colleges. How do they grow up so fast? Crazy.

Easter

It's not too late to post Easter pics, right. Here are some from Annalee's 3rd Easter.

We managed to dye real eggs for the first time, but somehow forgot to hide and hunt them! Oops.

Tough Day

Well, today was kinda tough. I said goodbye to my house. I know it's just a house and there will be others that I love, but it was still sad. I met my cleaning lady there this afternoon and worked a little while she cleaned the main stuff. I had lots of time to sit on my porch swing for the last time and reminisce.

We had a huge porch on that house and that's where we spent lots of time. I loved to sit on the swing and talk on the phone. We endearingly called ourselves porch monkeys because we were out there so much. My house was great too, to me. Annalee's nursery was so cozy. It was the smallest room in the house, but I liked it that way. I loved my huge closet, very uncharacteristic of that style house (the 1920's), but someone at some point enclosed a back porch area to make it. Micah's bathroom was hilarious...teeny tiny. I've never seen a sink as small as his. But, just like everything else in that house, it worked for us.

We were so blessed with the greatest neighbor in the world, Ms. Susi. She loved Annalee like her own grandchild. I trusted her like a relative. She even took Annalee on a walk and to the neighborhood park once. Annalee loved her too. I could also go on and on about the neighborhood itself. I will really miss being able to walk to so many neat things close by. We used to walk up to the botanic gardens, the museums, Central Market, our favorite custard shop, and of course the Wardlaws house. We even walked to downtown once, although that was a little far for my liking!

Lots of things happened in that house; we brought home our first baby, lost our first dog, hosted many get togethers, started a company, etc, etc. Although we've closed the chapter of that part of our life, I am excited to see what God has in store for us next. We would appreciate your prayers as we enter this new phase of life and we are still waiting on direction from Him for exactly where we'll be in several months. Thanks for letting me ramble on about my house, it's just been a sentimental kind of day.

The Big Move

Well, I survived. Yesterday was moving day and everything went off without a hitch. Micah is working quite a bit these days and with my whole pregnancy situation, we decided it was high time to hire some movers! That was the best money I've spent in a long time. We decided to use a company that is staffed by off-duty firefighters. I figured that was the safest bet in case I went into labor! Fortunately, we only had to use their delivery services for our stuff, not our baby! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post today, but hopefully I can at least get one of our storage unit. I honestly don't think we could fit a toothpick in that thing now, it is packed to the brim...floor to ceiling! We have a few more things to tie up at the house before Wednesday and I need to get my stuff organized at the Beck's, but all in all I'm feeling pretty good.

For the Morbidly Curious!

Ok, so I'm not big on standing alone and getting my picture taken, especially when the purpose is just to see how humongous my stomach is!! But some of you have asked for belly pics, so here's what you get! This was taken at a diaper shower that some of my sweet friends threw for me last weekend. Thanks so much girls, it was awesome!

Here's me in all my glory at nearly 34 weeks. I talked with my doctor and she is more than happy to induce me at 39 weeks if "everything looks favorable." You can use your imagination as to what that means exactly! So, by my calculations, that is in exactly 5 weeks! Yikes.

Does this really need explaining?

Bring It!

Well, it's official. We are homeless (as of April 15th). Our buyers option period ended today and we are set to close in a little over 2 weeks. I have mixed emotions about the whole thing, but I know in the long run all of these changes will be better for our family. In the meantime (while we are still trying to figure out what we want to do when we grow up!) we are moving in with Micah's parents. I reserved our storage unit today and packing will officially start tomorrow! I am going to try really hard not to over do it. I have already had several people offer to come over and help me and I am graciously going to accept, so if you offer, be ready for me to schedule a day for you! We also hired the off-duty firemen to help with the bulk of the move. This is going to be interesting, but I am up for the adventure. Next time you hear from me I'll be up to my ears in boxes.

This girl loves a carousel

We have a new favorite attraction at the zoo these days, the carousel! Looks like we'll be riding it every time we go this summer.

Thieves

I am so sick to my stomach today....thieves stole our jogging stroller from the side of our house last night! We used that thing a ton, and even worse, it was on loan from our generous Aunt Kandi!! Glad we're getting out of this shady neighborhood soon. :) Just kidding, I don't think our neighborhood is shady, but apparently there are some dishonest people here! Who would steal from a baby???!!!

YIKES!

We have a contract on our house!! We actually have a back-up contract as well in case this one falls through. Thank you for all of your prayers, they worked! We have a 10-day option period, so after that is up I will officially be a crazy lady trying to get everything packed and ready to go. I secretly love to pack and organize/clean out as I go, so I am kinda looking forward to it. Although, I've never done it with a big belly in the way!

Some New Fav Products

I haven't done a list of some of my favorite products lately, and I have a few new ones to add to my list, so here it goes.

Annalee loves taking bubble baths and for several weeks now I've been wishing that there were a baby friendly bubble bath...well what do you know?? Johnson and Johnson came out with one! It smells really good and is safe for their little eyes, plus it doubles as a body wash. On top of that, I found a $1 off coupon for it in last Sunday's paper-even better.

I've also discovered a new sippy cup that I really like for her. She has started chewing on the tip of her cups (she can drink from a regular cup, but for independence sake and the sake of her type A momma, she has to have a sippy cup). I found one at Walmart for .97 that is BPA free, comes in fun colors, doesn't have annoying characters on it and has a hard plastic spout that should be pretty indestructible. We shall see. (this is the closest picture I could find, our spout is hard plastic, not clear silicone).

This was on my list of favorites when I was pregnant with Annalee and is back on it for this pregnancy. Mimi Maternity stretch mark cream! I slather up with this stuff everyday and so far we are free and clear of the lovely marks. The only pain is that you can only get it at Mimi Maternity and it's about $20 a bottle, but to me it's totally worth it. (I usually have to buy about 3 bottles per pregnancy).

Baskets and containers...can't live without them. If you open just about any cabinet, closet or drawer in my house, you will find plenty of them. I love the little white shallow ones that you can get in a 3 or 4 pack at walmart for a couple of bucks. They are great for holding baby socks in drawers, small tupperware lids, odds and ends in the "junk drawer." You name it, it's probably in a basket or container at my house.

Target brand sensitive baby wipes. Love them. A.) they're cheap! B.) they won't tear apart

What more could you ask for?

Method granite cleaner. We recently updated our kitchen and I am terrified of damaging our granite, don't know why! But I found a daily cleaner that smells really fresh and makes the counter tops sparkle.

Pregnancy Brain

My brain is an absolute jumbled mess these days!! Just today I managed to misplace a package of hot dogs and spent 30 minutes looking for them, only to find them in the meat drawer in the fridge...that would have been a good place to start looking Lori! I also thought I had lost my phone and spent the majority of the day thinking it was missing, only to discover that I had it in my pocket the whole time. Oh, there's more. We had a cookout at our house for some friends and I came in the house 3 times to get a plate and left 3 times without a plate! I also left my diaper bag and wallet at a friend's house all day and I never leave it anywhere. And that was just today.

In addition, I am completely scatter brained about what I need to do to get ready for this baby. I feel lost and confused! I pretty much haven't done a single thing in order for her arrival. Part of that problem is the fact that our house is for sale and I don't know where I'll be living when she does arrive. On that note, please say a prayer for the sale of our house. I am getting really tired of showing it at the drop of a hat and it's getting really hard for me to bend over and clean everyday. We've shown it 37 times since Christmas! That makes me tired just thinking about it!

Ok, I feel better.

Just For Fun

Daddy took this picture the other night. We are slowly making our way through the hundreds of books that I have from my teaching years. Annalee loves to pick out new ones to read every few nights. This one was about a dog...things she loves in pictures, but is absolutely terrified of in person!

Another favorite past time, coloring. She loves to color (and can now identify the colors red, orange, blue, purple, green, yellow, brown, and pink). I took her picture without her looking at me first, and she stopped me and said, "No, I say cheese Mama!" So then I took this one!

Another, 'take my picture while I say cheese' moment!

My Little Ice Skater and Sledder

Here are the videos as promised. Enjoy.

More Breckenridge Pics

Jodie just e-mailed me some more pics of our trip.


Here are the guys on their dog sledding adventure. They were each able to drive the dog sled by themselves and also ride as a passenger.


More sledding



Annalee loved her snowsuit and boots. One night she worked and worked to get her boots on over her jammies...so proud!



Jo Jo and Papa with their horse "Blondie" before their sleigh ride.




The whole gang waiting for the horses.

Micah and Annalee made this snowman on our balcony the day we arrived! Annalee missed it so much that when we arrived home, Micah had to make one out of paper balls before she would go to sleep.

Lovin' the snow!

Family Vacation

We just returned from a wonderful long weekend in Breckenridge, Colorado! The weather was amazing and everything was absolutely beautiful. The whole Beck fam (minus Rachel and Blaine-we missed you!!) stayed in a condo with a great view of the slopes. Here's a recap in pictures of what we did all weekend.

Annalee got to sit in her very own airplane seat this time since she is over 2 years old. It was nice having the extra lap space to myself...especially since my lap is shrinking by the day!

We had a couple of hours to kill before we could check in to the condo, we decided to go ice skating. Once again, Annalee surprised me and LOVED it! She wanted to go again and again around the rink.

The next day, the boys went dog sledding...there are some really great pics of that, but they're not on my camera since I didn't go with them. I'll have to share those later. Then that evening, we went on sleigh rides. It was pretty cold, but a great time!

On our last full day, the boys went skiing while we took the kids to a fun children's museum. I really wanted Annalee to go skiing too, but it didn't work out this year. I know she would have loved it! After the boys were done, we met up for some sledding.

I also have some great video of ice skating and sledding, but I can hear her waking up from her nap, so that will have to come later.

Unique Valentine's Day

We had to get out of our house this past Saturday because we had two showings (yes, our house is on the market...long story and we are waiting on the Lord's direction to know where to go next! I'll keep you posted as soon as I know something myself!) Anywho...Micah suggested we go to the zoo. It was a tad chilly, but lots of fun. I recently bought a season pass to our zoo. I figured it would be a great place to visit this summer when I needed to get the kids out of the house. Annalee hadn't been in about 6 months, and she had a blast! She especially loved the lions, flamingos (or bingos as she liked to call them) and the parakeets.

She also fell in love with this statue of a baby elephant...he received lots of hugs and kisses.



Feeding the parakeets. I thought she might be scared of them, but she loved them so much and even tried to pet a few.



I took about 6 pictures trying to get her to look at me, but the flamingos were way more interesting than Mommy.


After our zoo adventure we stopped by our neighbor's garage sale. Earlier in the day we dropped off our old dishwasher to try to sell, you know, consignment style. Unfortunately, it didn't. We ended up staying down there for over 2 hours hanging out with them! It was the first time we had ever really met them, and we are sad that they are moving next weekend...they would have been fun friends to have. We ended the night by getting take-out Chinese food and watching T.V. Sounds exciting, huh? We had a fun day though.

Have a Sassy Day

Today was the big day for Annalee's first haircut. I talked it up big time before we left because I feared the worst, but she totally surprised me! She sat up tall in the purple princess chair and acted like a total angel! She even let the lady blow dry her hair. There wasn't a peep or a whine, amazing. Now, I couldn't exactly get a smile out of her, but there were no tears, so that's what matters!

Before we got started, very serious face!

During our "Cutie Cut." Still very serious.

Some after shots.

Of course we had to have a sucker afterwards!

Tale of a Nap

If you know my child at all, you know that napping isn't her strong point. (That's a major understatement by the way). It's been this way from the get-go. As a tiny baby she would only sleep on some one's chest-awesome. As an older baby she would sometimes sleep in her crib, but only for 'power naps' as we endearingly called them. She has always been able to fall asleep in the car, which wasn't a problem when she was still in her carrier because I would just bring it in the house or the store and let her continue to sleep. Ever since she moved into her big girl carseat we've had even more struggles. There have been times that I've just sat in the car for an hour or more letting her sleep. I've also rolled the windows down in my car and sat on the front porch with a magazine or the computer while she has slept in her carseat. She has also been know to fall asleep standing up in her crib after a crying fit. Her record for sleeping like this is about 30 minutes! Recently, I have been able to get her to fall asleep in her crib (laying down!!) if I sing to her and rub her back for about 5 minutes. I know you are thinking that she has me totally whipped, and she probably does, but at least she sleeps in her crib now! Right this second she has been asleep in it for almost 2 hours!! Of course she sleeps like a champ at school on her napmat with 14 other kids in the room. What?? Her teacher has magical powers.

Yesterday we had a fun shopping day with Karson and Mallory and on our way back to Karson's house Annalee fell asleep. The problem was that we were all in Karson's car. I had the idea that I could move her carseat with her in it back into my car and keep her asleep. And guess what? It worked!! Karson was pretty amazed, but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do!!

Annalee-isms

I just have to write down some of my favorite (and not so favorite) things that Annalee says these days so I won't forget someday.

"I don't like it." repeated dozens of times when she is upset about something.
"Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder little star." her version of the song
"ABCD HIJ ABCD HIJ" the abc's
"Old MacDonald had a pig, eiei O" emphasize the pig and the O
"one, two, three, two" counting
"I need__________" she 'needs' lots of things!
"Clean up, clean up everybody clean up, clean up" the clean up song
"Swing, swing, swing, swing, Annalee swinging" I think Papa made up this song on a whim one day and she sings it whenever she swings!
"No, I not stinky." said when she is obviously very stinky!
"No, E's happy birthday." said when we went to another friend's b-day party a few weeks after hers.
She used to call herself E, but now she is trying to say her whole name more often. She also says David now instead of DayDay. :( I liked the nicknames.
Her sweet prayers..."thank you God Mama, Daddy, JoJo, K etc." she will name off everyone she can think of and then say Amen.
"Who dat?" said a billion times a day to whatever or whoever she doesn't know.
"Hold the rope, Mama." they hold a rope when they go places at school, so she likes to use a shoestring and lead me places.

I know there are a ton more, but these are the ones that come to mind. She talks constantly to us and it's so fun to listen to her (most of the time!!!) She tends to be a little more reserved around strangers or groups, but I was the most shy child on earth, so I don't blame her!

Get ready for some "first haircut" pics coming soon. We are in need of some serious professional help...I mean, what do you do with straight on the top and curly in the back???